Cloud Architect
AWS Core Architect
- Location: Hybrid – London
- Contract Type: Contract Inside IR35
- Security Clearance: BPSS / SC Clearance required
In this contract, you will lead the architecture assessment of legacy application estates and design exactly how they will land, run, and operate on a newly established AWS core cloud platform.
- Legacy Assessments: Conduct deep-dive architectural assessments of legacy applications, evaluating technology stacks, data flows, interfaces, and operational models.
- Target Landing Design: Define target account structures, network placements, compute/storage patterns, and IAM configurations using standard AWS landing zone architectures.
- Migration Strategy: Formulate concrete migration treatments (rehost, replatform, refactor, etc.) and address dependencies, cutover sequences, and rollback strategies.
- Core AWS & EKS Patterns: Design specific integration patterns for S3, VPC, IAM, KMS, CloudWatch, and CloudTrail. Define managed Kubernetes/EKS landing patterns where container runtimes are required.
- Infrastructure as Code: Ensure all designs are fully translated using Terraform or CloudFormation.
- Deliverables: Author high-quality Architecture Decision Records (ADRs), transition-state designs, migration design documents, and operational runbooks.
Essential Experience:
- 5+ years of dedicated cloud architecture experience, with at least 2+ years of hands-on experience executing complex AWS migrations.
- Active AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional credential.
- Extensive knowledge of core AWS services, specifically VPC, IAM, KMS, CloudWatch, CloudTrail, AWS Config, S3, EC2, RDS, and Lambda.
- Strong expertise in designing AWS Landing Zones and workload isolation patterns.
- Hands-on experience with IaC tools—specifically Terraform or CloudFormation—and migration tooling such as AWS Application Migration Service (MGN) and Database Migration Service (DMS).
- Experience drafting assessment packs, as-is/to-be architectures, migration roadmaps, and ADRs.
- Basic scripting capabilities in Python or Bash.
- Exceptional stakeholder communication skills, with a proven ability to bridge technical designs with business requirements.
Highly Desirable (Nice to Have):
- Prior experience executing large legacy-to-cloud migrations within highly regulated environments.
- Experience with Kubernetes/EKS tooling such as Argo CD, Flux, Prometheus, Grafana, or Istio.
- A broader multi-cloud perspective (Azure or GCP).